Barrington area all-girls robotics team wins state championship
"Team Phoenix," a robotics team made up of middle-school age girls from the Barrington area, won the 64-team state Northern Championship Tournament last month to advance to the First Lego League World Festival in April in St. Louis.
Elementary and middle school participants are judged equally on core values, robotics (design and performance) and a project. All team members abide by the FLL "Core Values" that support and promote discovery, teamwork and gracious professionalism.
In the robotics portion of the competition, the teams design, build, test and program a robot using Lego Mindstorms technology to solve a set of missions.
This year's project focus is Animal Allies, where teams identify and research a real-world problem and then develop an innovative solution. The girls chose urban coyotes. They invented a CLASS (Coyote Light and Air horn with Strap to Scare) device to help protect dogs and dog walkers.
The girls also held a bake sale at Barrington's Parker Playhouse in December to raise funds for Eastern Coyote/Crywolf Research.
In an effort to educate the public about urban coyote issues, they also made a Public Service Announcement video (produced by Barrington High School TV) and published a picture book called "Urban Coyotes" (available on amazon.com).
Next, Team Phoenix will face champions from 22 states and 33 other countries, with more than 100 teams invited to participate.
"We are so proud of the girls and their hard work and teamwork that led to this amazing achievement," said coach and team member mom Tanita Sirivedhin. "They are excited to represent Barrington and the state of Illinois at the World Festival."
The girls were first exposed to FLL when teams were launched a few years ago at Hough Street School in Barrington under the tutelage of teachers Patti Haney and Jen Conant.
For the last two years, Team Phoenix has been under the lead coaching of Sirivedhin of Hoffman Estates, along with parent coaches Keri Bowman and Katja Stonebraker.